Proud and Unrepentant: Part 2

Well, while my first thought is of Brust, when the urge hit me to seek out some Lucifer literature this weekend, I knew I wouldn’t be buying yet another copy of his novel. It would be tricky to justify given I alread own two copies.

Instead, I turned to Milton himself. While it is certainly true that a little bit of net manipulation can get me many copies of Paradise Lost, or various scholarly articles about it, to review (and this time without breaking any laws, this work being long, long public domain), I haven’t ever added a decent hardcopy to my collection.

Fortunately, even in the outer regions that Boston forgot, you can pick up a very nice edition of Paradise Lost for very little money.

This has given me the chance to cuddle up with Milton‘s Lucifer over the weekend.

Milton‘s blank verse isn’t as approachable as Brust‘s prose, but his Lucifer is just as interesting. The thing I’ve noticed reading it this time around that has caused me to pause the most is the extent to which my perception of Lucifer might differ from that of someone raised in a different society than me–specifically from someone raised with a highly religious background. It hadn’t really struck home for me before how many of the things that I see as positive in Milton‘s Lucifer would be, or could be, seen as very negative traits by someone with a certain kind of upbringing, or indeed by people within a certain kind of society. I should have had a chat with some of the church ladies about it, really.

Here’s the famous speech that Brust was quoting in his title:

Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since hee
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then hee
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.Text from online version at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/lost/pl1.html.

There’s a lot of brilliant stuff in that short little passage, isn’t there?

“Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream/Above his equals.” — I love this, because it’s so clear that Lucifer is offended that might has exceeded the power of reason. The implicit premise: that reason should be mightier than force lines up pretty nicely with my positions–and as a bonus it has to be a shocking idea for people in Milton‘s time, especially in a religiously-motivated work. Hell, Burton could get behind that.

“The mind is its own place, and in it self/Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” — Again, the supremacy of the individual, which might have seemed dangerously proud in Milton‘s world, seems pretty awe inspiring to me. These two lines might encapsulate the non-political point of one of my favourite movies. Certainly the notion that happiness and suffering are in large part products of the mind, and that the mind can triumph over mere environmental effects, is impressive.

And then the last bit of the passage, where the trade is made that freedom from dominance is worth some, or perhaps any amount, of suffering. Call me a Romantic, but that works for me.

Coming next time: Part 3 with my all-time favourite, number one, unrepentant and proud Lucifer from literature.